OFFIE MAG

BURR 26: Tim Fish (GingerSlim)

In this series, Brighton hip-hop DJ, Matt ‘Brickcellphone’ Leppier, is chatting to some of the underground rap talent on his radar. It’s as simple as that.

Follow him @brickcellphone and listen to him spin some of these artists on Offie Mag Radio.

We’ve mixed it up a little bit this time, as we look towards a fellow member of the hip-hop writing community. More so, one of the longest-running, most highly-revered and committed hip-hop writers on the interweb today, GingerSlim.

The Bristol-based writer has been running his own blog for years, supporting homegrown talent and hip-hop in the UK and abroad for several years. Now writing for Blah Records and Grown Up Rap among others, his unwavering support has been crucial to a so-called ‘UK hip-hop scene’ that has rarely seen large media attention over the years…

Ello mate, can you introduce yourself for those who may not know you?

My name’s Tim aka GingerSlim and I’m a blogger and freelance writer. I’ve been writing about hip hop for over 10 years and I’m a huge supporter of the UK scene. I run my own blog, plus the Blah Records blog and have contributed to a load of different sites over the years.

You’ve been doing this for a little while now, how has the Hip Hop ‘climate’ in this country changed since you started?

Artists seem a lot less restricted in their creativity these days, so you will hear MCs who stray into grime, boom-bap and trap all on the same album. And it seems much more accepted by fans. There are still a fair amount of whinging purists out there, but they seem to be the minority now. Personally, I think it’s brilliant and I hope it keeps moving in that direction.

What have been your top three standout moments for you in your career thus far?

I was lucky enough to chat with Pharoahe Monch last year and when he shared the interview on Twitter, he said that it brought a tear to his eye. That was a fucking big deal for me cos he’s been a favourite of mine since the mid-90’s. I think getting published in DJ Magazine has gotta be up there too. I used to buy that mag as a teenager so seeing my words in there was pretty crazy. And in print too.

Also, El-P started following me on Twitter a couple of years ago and RTJ were playing on London around the same time, so I asked him for guestlist and he ended up giving me VIP access. It meant we got to hang out together at the after-party which was a lot of drunken fun. That was probably my most surreal fanboy moment.

You have a good relationship with High Focus & Blah Records – how did this come about and how has it helped you?

I think its mainly just from being around on the scene for so long. I’ve been supporting HF since they started and I’ve been a Blah fan for years. People tend to recognise when you’ve been showing love for that length of time. They’ve both helped me a lot in return, be it through interview opportunities, sharing my work on their socials etc. And the whole Blah blog thing was a great boost for me too. I owe them a lot.

A post shared by Roni Sighs (@gingerslim_) on May 4, 2019 at 7:39am PDT

Are there any young up and coming artists on your radar that we should know about?

Lazy Eyez is definitely one of my favourites. He’s in Pupils of the Clock and he’s signed to Green Brick Records which is run by Badhabitz and Res One from Split Prophets. He dropped his debut solo LP this year & it’s a fucking triumph. He’s just one of those naturally gifted MCs, raps way beyond his years.